Taiwan in crisis as Premier quits, said our front page headline yesterday, but the story was actually a little disappointing. No fists or purses flew in the legislature. What sort of Taiwanese political crisis is that?
Go a few paragraphs further along and it turns out that all the fuss was about another doddering old Kuomintang (KMT) general quitting at last, purportedly because he objected to the cancellation of a nuclear plant.
What a relief to have chosen a financial career instead of politics. As anyone worth his salt in finance soon discovers, politics, along with journalism of course, is the natural home of the intellectually lazy. The two have a fine time together extolling each other's importance.
Let's have that crisis checklist. Most of the rest of us in Asia know what crisis is. It threatened our livelihoods only three years ago. That is what real crisis means. What is this crisis in Taiwan?
Check them off one by one. Economic growth so far this year has averaged 6.7 per cent. Terrible figure, isn't it? Inflation is less than 1 per cent, dangerously high, wouldn't you say? Exports so far this year are up 25 per cent, a cause for deep concern. The balance of payments is in surplus. Can't have that.
Go right down that list as far as you want and see if you can find any ailment of substance in this country other than the sore throats of politicians who talk too much. The only things you can really spot is that the Taiwanese Government is still running a big deficit (those politicians again) and the stock market is weak.